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W. D. Ross (1877-1971) on Animal Rights

Animal Ethics

We had better therefore take the less complicated case of animals, which we commonly suppose not to be even potential moral agents. If we take the first view, we are implying that in order to have rights, just as much as in order to have duties, it is necessary to be a moral agent. It is not at all clear which is the true view.

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Moral Vegetarianism, Part 8 of 13

Animal Ethics

For an explanation of this feature, click on “Moral Vegetarianism” at the bottom of this post. Meat-packing companies might encourage, for example, an increased dog population to take up the slack. One suspects that the SPCA and the American Humane Society have done more to stop cruelty to animals than vegetarians ever could.